It Came from the Centre of the Earth

Just where do stones come from? I don’t mean geologically, but rather the horticultural variety.

Every year, about this time, the sun comes out and we head off into the garden to start preparing the flower beds, turning the soil and picking out all the stones and other debris so that there is only earth. Just like last year. So where do all those new stones come from?

I have this theory that deep underground there are caverns that are home to breeding colonies of boulders whose offspring must head upwards to escape the intense heat and pressure until they have grown big enough to return. Up and up they burrow to reach the shallows of our flower beds only to be culled by heartless gardeners. It’s the equivalent of seal-clubbing.

Or am I just being fanciful? No need to answer that one.

The other things that surface whenever we’re digging in the garden are bits of brick and concrete and occasionally old clay items that presumably date back to our house’s Victorian vintage. Like the one featured left that turned up today.

You can click on it to get a larger view. It stands about an inch high and is hollow inside. It doesn’t show on the photo, but it has some decorative touches on the top and you can see from the two lighter bits on the left that it must have had some sort of handle that has been broken off.

But what is it? Our best guess is that it was a candle snuffer, but we’re open to offers. From the Antiques Roadshow. Hah!

Nobody’s prefect. If you find any spelling mistakes or other errors in this post, please let me know by highlighting the text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.

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It is obviously a circumcision cap – very popular in the mid-nineteenth century amongst Manchester’s thriving Jewish community. The young lad would be snipped by the rabbi and then the cap, filled with soothing warm linament, would be eased over the injured appendage to quell the bleeding and reduce the pain that this ancient ritual induces.